About us

This podcast is dedicated to promoting God’s grace that flows from His Word.

We are a couple of guys from Michigan that enjoy discussing theology with the original documents that shaped the Reformation. Mike Yagley is an engineering manager for a major company. Evan Gaertner is a Lutheran pastor in Michigan.

We podcast on the important documents of the Reformation. We talk about the historical context, try to understand the important players on the scene at the time, and consider the theological importance of the documents. We don’t plan to stay stuck in the historical world. We also plan to discuss the contemporary importance of these issues as well.

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Month: November 2018

The sudden death of Pope Leo X sparked one of the most openly political papal conclaves in history. Each of the three major political powers of the 16th century made clear who they wanted to replace Leo, and they didn’t want.The most competent man for the job, Leo’s cousin Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, was strongly opposed by King Francis I of France. King Henry VIII of England advocated for his right hand man, Cardinal Wolsey, and struck a deal with Emperor Charles V of Spain to support him. Wolsey came close to getting the required votes, but fell short because he couldn’t get the support of the French delegation who worried it would give too much power to the English.

The issue was finally resolved when it was suggested to give the papacy to Adrian of Utrecht, a Dutch scholar who was liked and respected by all the kings.

When Pope Leo X died suddenly (and suspiciously!) in December of 1521, he left the papacy deeply in debt, to the point where his funeral needed to borrow candles from a previous funeral.

The papal conclave that followed was one of the most openly political events in Roman Catholic history, with the papacy eventually being decided in favor of Adrian of Utrecht.

Although Adrian was almost completely unknown in Rome, he had been the tutor for Charles since Charles was seven-years-old.

For all of his political experience, Adrian wasn’t a very political person.Rather, he was a pious, thoughtful, intelligent, professor, which is what he remained as pope.

Adrian’s piety wasn’t just a problem with the princes of the era.When Adrian arrived in Rome, he openly expressed his disdain for the ancient art from before the Christian era.The leadership of Rome was insulted, and became convinced he was truly a barbarian.

He didn’t make friends with the cardinals, either. When a new pope was installed in Rome, it was customary for him to grant petitions to powerful people to build relationships.Ascanio Colonna, a nephew of one of the Cardinals, came and asked for a pardon for a friend who had been convicted of homicide.Adrian refused, saying, “We cannot pardon without hearing both sides.” The Cardinals were heartbroken.

Beer break

Greenbush Brewing Co. is situated 12 miles across the Michigan border from Indiana, in Sawyer. While the proximity to Chicago makes for a convenient homeward-bound pit stop along I-94 – the excellent food, constantly rotating tap list, and friendly atmosphere are reason enough to make Greenbush a required ‘Michiana’ destination.

Headbrewer Peter Hasbrouck is charged with concocting the bevy of brewery year-rounds, seasonals, and one-off beers that can be sampled in an increasing footprint throughout the Midwest.

Pete, thanks for meeting us on your day off. So, how does a fella such as yourself end up brewing here in Sawyer, Michigan?

I have a food background. I went to culinary school up in Grand Rapids. I made my way around in the food industry for a bit. I went to Oregon for a few months for an internship also. Then, I made my way around Grand Rapids and got a chance to work about town and eat everywhere. Part of ‘eating’ is drinking. When I was in Oregon, the sous chef I was working for was home brewing. In Oregon, everyone brews. I was like “Man you got to show me how to do that, I’ve always wanted to learn.” He showed me how to extract-brew and then I bought all of his equipment off of him and drove it back home. This was five or six years ago.

After, I took a culinary job just up the road in Sawyer. And three weeks after that, Greenbush opened [in 2011]. Naturally, I became a patron. It was really small back then. The bartenders were the brewers and the cellermen; they did everything. I brought in some ciders and meads and they thought they were really good. In the wintertime, when things slowed down, I asked if there was any way I could come in and just watch from the corner. They said if I wanted to come by and help, that I just to swing in here. So I started to come in every Monday at 6am. A little bit later they needed a brewer and they were like “You already know the job, so do you want it?”– Yeah, sure!

As for day to day, I deal with raw material stuff all the way through to carbonation. Ryan Beach is basically my other half. He deals with everything from carbonation to packaging. Labels, kegs, 6-pack holders, talking to sales guys: that’s all him.

Broken Promises

Greenbush Brewing Company

IPA – American

In the land of hop contracts, you can’t always get what you want. Lucky for us, when brewing our Wheat IPA we found Zythos hops, which lend a serious citrus burst to this fine brew.

There were four main problems Adrian wanted to address

Reform the curia

Free the papacy from politics

Unite Christendom in Europe

Resist the Turks.

No Luther?? There’s no doubt Adrian thought Luther was a heretic. He was consulted by the theological faculty of Louvain before they condemned Luther’s writings. Adrian answered, “Not even a novice in theology could make such mistakes.” When Luther met with the emperor at Worms, Adrian wrote to Charles that it would be agreeable to God, and necessary for his reputation as the emperor, to condemn Luther as a heretic.

Have to remember that Adrian was the Inquisitor-General in Spain. This was at the height of the infamous “Spanish Inquisition”. All the more curious why Luther didn’t make his short list of major issues.The answer can be found in a letter from Aleander to Adrian.

Aleander wrote: “The axe is laid at the root of the tree, unless we choose to return to wisdom. There is no need of issuing new laws and fulminating Bulls; we have the canons and institutes of the fathers, and if they are only observed, the evil may be arrested. Let the pope and the curia do away with their errors by which God and man are rightly offended… If the Germans see this done, there will be no further talk of Luther.”

Adrian seemed to take Aleander’s advice.Unfortunately for Adrian, reforming the Curia wasn’t going to be easy.The way Leo had managed the papacy left a large group of bishops and cardinals dependent on the income from the abuses.

So Adrian had a two prong approach to stopping Luther. First, reform the Curia. Second, follow his inquisitor instincts and come down hard on anybody who he thought was a heretic.

When the reformation of the Curia didn’t work, Adrian began to push for something like a German version of the Spanish Inquisition. According to Adrian, Luther was even worse than the Turk.

Mandell Creighton sums it up nicely in “A history of the papacy from the great schism to the sack of Rome”

“He might have impressed the Romans with the power of holiness, and might have substituted for the worldly policy of his predecessors the ideal of the Christian bishop; but he shut himself up in the Vatican and led the retired life of a studious monk. Secure in his good intentions, absorbed in his plans for the future, he lacked that quick sympathy with actual human needs which alone can make abstract plans intelligible. He was content to make his purposes clear, without seeking how he could give them effective expression. He trusted logic and did not strive to awaken enthusiasm. He was more anxious to keep clear from doing evil than to do good. His attitude was negative rather than positive.”

Most historians will say that Adrian’s inability to make political alliances was a major contributor to the fall of Rhodes and the rise of the Ottomans.

In early September of 1523, only a year and a half after he was installed as pope, it became clear that Adrian was very sick. On September 14, the Cardinals rushed to his bedside when they heard he was at his final hour.

They were not interested in carrying out his plans. They were not interested in the welfare of the church. They wanted to know where he hid all the money.He raised taxes, but lived very frugally. They were certain that he was a miser.He answered that he didn’t have anything but small savings.They refused to believe him and grilled him like a criminal.When Adrian died, the people of Rome were so happy, they put up a wreath on the door of the doctor who treated Adrian as he died.The wreath, “To the deliverer of his country”

Unfortunately, Adrian wasn’t the right man to pull away the attention of the masses from the interests of politics to the real issues. Adrian would be the last non-Italian to be elected pope until John Paul II’s election to the papacy in 1978.